06.15.08
Dada’s Day with many special surprises.
I am enjoying my 3rd Father’s Day – that is if I am allowed to count the one when Charlie was still in the womb. Oh well, the more the merrier. We just returned from going out to eat with her side of the family, which was about 40 people. About 10 minutes from home, I had a quick flashback to the good ol’ country of Indiana as fumes of fresh farm wafted into my nostrils. To my surprise the smell was something different. April looked back at Charlie in his car seat to see his hands covered in poo. Clean up time was spectacular and my wife summed it well, “Happy Father’s Day!”
April gifted me a very sweet present. It was a frame with a poem and Charlie’s footprints. Here is the poem.
Someday I’ll walk through the woods or even run a race,Someday I’ll fix a buckle or even tie a lace,Someday I’ll walk across the street or even into space,Someday I might even try to walk my daddy’s pace.
Someday I’ll climb way up high in a big huge tree,Someday I may even hike the big ole P.C.T.Someday I’ll walk to kindergarten and learn my ABC’s,Someday I’ll walk around at a university.
Someday I’ll ride a tricycle and then I’ll ride a bike,Someday I’ll call you, Daddy, for some fatherly advice.Someday I’ll walk beside you , and I will say this twice,“Thank you Dad, Than you Dad, you are the sunshine of my life!”
05.19.08
Back to Back
We have had two great weekends back to back. The first was a festival, Lake Eden Arts Festival, and the other was a hiking celebration, Trail Days.
LEAF-This was probably the most of I have had to “work” at this festival-that is if you call volunteering at the drink booth working. The past years I have had a laid back weekend enjoying the soaking of sunshine, listening to world music, and simply letting the time roll on by. However, this time Charlie was up walking around, which meant that I had to keep up with him every second of the day. This was Charlie’s 3rd festival and the previous two he pretty much laid around on a blanket or slept in his stroller. This meant we could go on with all of our normal festival activities. No more though. I am making this much more dramatic then it actually was. I had just as good of time as the other times; the only difference is that now I am truly participating in a family festival. Soon we will all be at the drum circle dancing around with the hippies. Till then I will savor up the kids tent, kids market, and face painting. Kids first, mama and dada second.
Trail Days. I wrote about Trail Days last year (Click here to read it) and it was pretty much the same. Again, Charlie did not come with us; April and I had our only little weekend. This year I was able to see a movie premiere, documentary on the Continental Divide Trail by the guy who made Appalachian Impressions. It was very inspiring. Plus, they gave away free popcorn in a box. I mean when was the last time you had popcorn in a box. We also saw slides of Mount Washington in the winter (click here to see their web cam) and show clips about National Parks in the USA. Overall, just like LEAF, being around people of who share common interests is like no other. Hike on…
To cap on our wonderful back to back weekends, we biked a portion of the the Virginia Creeper Trail. I shot some video of our trip. Click here to watch or just watch it on my blog. Time to get ready for another weekend. The summer has just begun!
05.09.08
Happy Mother’s Day
I know the holiday is not here yet but I am not going to be around a computer this weekend. We are attending the Lake Edan Arts Festival (L.E.A.F.) A big THANK YOU goes out to all the mother’s across the globe. I hope your day is special.
05.05.08
FINALly FINALs
“FINALly FINALs” is what I wrote on my message board outside of my office. Finals for the Spring semester were last week and that was just one thing that has been wrapping up around here. Here is a quick run through.
- Spring semester is now over and I now have two weeks before the Summer semester starts. I work the same amount of hours, yet there are packed in differently. I will teach from 8 to 12 Monday through Thursday for 10 weeks. So even though I don’t officially have the summer off, it is sort of like working half days.
- April ran another race this weekend; this time a 25K. She finished second in her age group with a time of 2 hours and six minutes. Click here to see the results.
- I made the final payment on my car, Elementone. This was mostly possibly because of my tax refund check; thanks Charlie for the extra dependent bonus. Now, I still have major college loans and of course a house mortgage to pay off. However, hopefully these will be all on gone by time I am 40. Taking three years off to hike the AT, be a waiter, and attend grad school full-time were broke times and further into debt times but I am so glad that I did it. I think there is a saying that goes “Do it now and ask for forgiveness later.” Well I would change it to, “Do it now and pay the major interest later.” Note that this motto should not be applied to credit card spending
- NC president primary yada yadaness is coming to a close. We were fortunate to have Bill Clinton speak just two blocks away from our house. He spoke from the porch of a local resident and spoke about why we should vote for Hillary. This was my first political rally and I thought it was a really neat experience.
- Charlie is getting closer and closer to saying good-bye to crawling. He still falls down often and cannot stand up on his own. We were at our local green way yesterday and bet Charlie walked close to a total of 75 yards. I wonder what the equivalence of his walk would be for me? Miles?
As with many other ending, there follows a new beginning. And so another Chapter in the Life of Selfwalker continues.
04.04.08
Finding plumbing
- Last Sunday, I was watching the NCAA tournament, glued to the TV screen, and April was cleaning the fridge. She dumped some very old pinto beans down the garbage disposal, along with a few other things. Within seconds, the sink was filled up with smelly-watery-food that was not going down the drain. I tried many things before accepting that fact that I had to get under the sink and open up the pipes. I had no clue what I was doing. I put on my headlamp, slithered my way in the cupboards, and began twisting and turning. Then I found the culprit, which was chunks shredded celery. In the end, I washed out the pipes, put every thing back together, and the sink was draining once again. Overall, I am waiting for that “Walsh disaster” when some thing simple turns drastically wrong and expletives fill the air.
- Enough about my plumbing time to talk about Charlie’s. Bath time has been extra exciting this week. Charlie has found Mr. Pee Pee. I am not going to write any details, other than April and I have been laughing much more this week.
This weekend we travel to Charleston, SC. April is running in one of the best 10 K in the world, well that is what some say, the Cooper River Bridge Run. Over 30,000 will be running in this race. It should be quite the experience.Have a great first weekend of April!
03.30.08
Last days of March
- April and I have both had our spring break. Unfortunately, our two breaks did not occur during the same week. April did some wonderful spring cleaning around the house and also took care of Charlie the entire time. I also cleaned, finding a $100 Amazon gift certificate!
- April and I went on a weekend trip. We were celebrating our 2nd year wedding anniversary. On day one we camped and rode bikes along the New River in Virginia. We had great weather: cool-sunny days for biking and clear chilly nights for camping. Day two we rented a cabin, (cabin #4), near the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was great find. The cabin felt remote, nestled in the woods, and they even brought us breakfast in the morning.
- Charlie has been walking faster and faster with his walker. I posted a video on my YouTube page. (Click here to watch it) Perhaps the month of April will be Charlie’s first steps.
- I have posted some new pictures at my website. Click here to see them.
- We have been tossing around the idea of moving. We really love where we live, but we would like to have a yard for Charlie and also having a shorter commute to our jobs would be a bonus. We will keep our eyes open.
There you have it; our two week check up. Enjoy your final days of March. April Fool’s is just around the corner. Lastyear I wrote that April was having another kid. A certain someone took the bait. Hmm… what can I do this year?
03.13.08
He walks, I walk, we walk
Charlie is now WALKING with a walker. He strolls around the house running into walls or any thing in his way. Although he cannot turn the walker around now, he may in a week. Just during the past seven days I have noticed a big difference in his walking ability. He is getting faster and at times even letting go of the walker. The time when I’ll be throwing him a football and then him running for a touchdown is just around the corner. I have been keeping up with my morning walks. Recently I earned this award. (click here to see it) My monthly goal for total miles has increased from 20 miles to 40 miles. Honestly, my only motivation to continue walking are podcasts and my monthly goal. Health and exercise have nothing to do with it, but they are nice outcomes. Being able to listen to science news, a hip-hop mix, interviews, academic discussions, talk shows, etc. is a great way to start the day. I cannot really say that I am any smarter from listening to hours and hours of podcasts, but I do believe that from hearing so many different perspectives my critical thinking skills have greatly improved. I think there for I am. April and I have been on our marriage walk for two years. Our anniversary was March 11. Year two is cotton. So we tailored our gifts towards that theme. Also, we went out to eat to our favorite restaurant downtown, The Wine and Bistro. Next weekend we will be traveling around Virginia for our anniversary trip. Overall, my walk with April is amazing. She never misses an opportunity to say thank you, to help out, to listen, to laugh, to communicate, and to Love. As the path in wood diverges, I am so thankful that we chose to walk together and not take separate paths. Time to go to bed; I have to get up at 6 and walk in the morning!
02.28.08
Lukey Pukey, Charlie Farty
Weird health issues going on here at the Walsh house hold. First, I had a bump on my body. The bump was about the size of a grape and I had no clue what it was. Just when I was about to schedule a doctor appointment the bump shifted position, about 2 inches. Next day the bump was smaller and now it is almost gone. Perhaps, an alien was forming in my body but it just couldn’t handle the stud body of Selfwalker. Second, Charlie has had a virus the last three days. I first found this out when I put my hand in a puddle of his puke. Charlie was crying Monday morning so I went to put his pacifier back in his mouth. As I was blindly looking for it in the early hour, my palm went straight into a soupy sludge. YUCK! Immediately, I turned on the light which only caused Charlie to roll around in the puke. DOUBLE YUCK! Then last night Charlie showed us just how runny his runs can be. The runs had leaked out of his diaper, soaking into his sheets. As April zipped down his jammys, the runs oozed from the zipper. By the way, the smell was very impressive. Charlie is almost back to normal health, but now April is feeling weak. So, I’m trying to keep my hands clean and kisses to a minimal; that and burning incense to get rid of the cornucopia of wicked smells. Heal on…
01.22.08
Max Patch Retreat 2008
We just returned from a magnificent weekend adventure in the North Carolina mountains. The past two days have been filled with so much excitement, food, and beverage. Hopefully the wintery mix arrives in the morning because I am still in recovery mode. The entire trip worked out perfectly. It just began snowing, as we turned on to the 5 miles of forest road to the rental home. My car slid around a bit, which caused April to pick off her nail polish even faster, but we made it safe and sound. The hot tub was ready to go as soon as we arrived. We had drinks poured and us sitting in the hot tub within 20 minutes. The weather was chilly the entire time; even reaching below zero temps. Overall, we did the normal vacation home activities; eating and drinking non-stop, hiking, games, movies, more eating and drinking, video games, cards, football, snow angels, etc. I will certainly be day dreaming about this trip all week long. Click here to see some photos.
01.16.08
First post of 2008
Last time I posted was December 18, 2007; a lot has happened since then.
- Walsh’s took a road trip to Indiana. I saw some of my friends growing up. I spent Christmas with my family. This was a first since 2002. I camped with my Uncle and the following morning we woke up to 2 inches of snow. My Mom finally accomplished one of her dreams of buying me a sport coat. Charlie and I together polluted three different restaurants; he threw up and doo dooed while I had bloody nose. My sister showed my the joy of remodeling the entire upstairs of a house, one week before Christmas.
- On December 30, we traveled back to NC. April’s new mini-van had just enough for all of our stuff. All three of us had some type of cold. We spent New Years at April’s parents.
- April’s birthday was January 7th. I surprised her with a trip to a Bed & Breakfast and fine dining in Winston Salem. The trip was romantically perfect. You can check out the locations and their webpages by clicking here.
- A new semester of classes has started for me. My goal is to be organized and communicate with all students. So far so good.
There you have it. A quick monthly update. I plan posting more frequently now. Looking back at all of the posts of 2007 has been a great reminder of all the events that took place. Try it out by picking out some post. I am really glad that I took the time to jot down the thoughts in my head. Perhaps Charlie will going through these writings 15 years from now and he will say, “Did you really have to tell the whole world that I pooped on a restaurant floor?” And I will reply, “Oh you just wait, it gets much much better!”
